Fighters where by you've revisited their career, IE gone back and watched old footage

Fighters where by you've revisited their career, IE gone back and watched old footage and thought they're even better than you expected, or not as good.

Duran is someone that I wasn't as impressed with as I thought I might be, especially given the kind of reputation he has. Dont get me wrong I'd already seen most of his big fights, but when I got the chance to watch say 20+ of his fights I have to say I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. I'm not saying he's not a great fighter either, he is, although me personally, he doesn't impress me as much as he does others.

I know Aaron Pryor might not be considered to be as great as Duran, but he actually impressed me more because he seemed to excel in almost every area. He was quick, not just of hand but of foot, he had great stamina, he could punch, he could fight, he could box(Gaétan Hart), he could fight inside, had good chin(albeit he did get knocked down a few times leaving his chin out to dry), knew how to change the angle when he got inside. He never stayed in the front door when attacking you, he would slide out the side door and attack from another angle. The guy was a real handful at times.

Who would you pick and why?

 

Willie Pep, a beautiful boxer to watch & all the footage of him is past his best. At his peak he must have been incredible.

 

Pryor was shocking against southpaws (some Jap' and Sang-Hyun Kim)

 

As I just said in another thread, easy to dismiss Floyd Patterson as a chinny, small, cherry-picking fighter until you see his fights with Quarry and Ellis.

Cannot see how Duran isn't the most mind-blowing and all-round skilled fighter of all time.

 

Vernon Forrest - when he was around it was like meh, he's skilled. Now I'm like damn this dude is sick.

 

Nah, Forrest was way too flawed, at the time or in retrospect.

 

He didn't looked great against Dujan Johnson either. He still impressed me overall though.

Duran is a television fighter imo. He might be great but I believe people buy too much into the Roberto Duran brand. This notion he was a hard as nails animal with a great defense. Some people even rate him above Ray Leonard. Well if that aint overstating it I dont know what is.

 

most people i speak to rate duran over leonard

imo he was already an atg by the time he beat srl that w just solidified his overall status

 

You may have misused that word. Not that it would be the worst of that, but I'm just saying.

 

He is greater than Leonard.

 

I agree. Leonard was a television fighter. People buy into the Leonard brand a bit too easily, really. But I understand. He makes me wanna dance.

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He's not even comparable.

 

I agree. Duran was a quitter who lost all his biggest fights like ODLH and faked an injury like BHOP. Also, let's be honest, kinda short, and bulimic. Leonard was a welterweight Ali and once harpooned a whale with his **** and fought Duran's fight that one time and lost because he was green. Basically, Duran is a lightweight Pacquiao who has more losses and hasn't been champion in as many weight classes.

 

Probably because you have no idea who Ernesto Marcel is or how great an operator he was.

 

More worrying is that Gooners is a really good poster Ears.